September 2012

Am I only a God nearby, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Jeremiah 23.23

The text continues in verse 24: Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him? God nearby or far away makes no difference, he sees us. The Bible is full of references to this fact:

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139.7-12

It was on a similar theme that I remembered about a year ago a fairy tale, which must have impressed me as a child. I found it again in the “Deutsches Märchenbuch” (1857) by Ludwig Bechstein (1801-1860). As a fitting illustration for the text of this month, I translated and slightly condensed the story from 19th century German into English:

God Everywhere
One day, when the parents walked through the fields to sell their wicker baskets in town, the good children Görgel and Lieschen stayed alone at home. Each had been given a large chunk of bread for the day. Görgel had eaten his in no time, so Lieschen gave him some more of hers.But Görgel still looked for something to nibble and tried to persuade his younger sister to lick with him from the sweet sugar beet syrup mother kept in the larder cupboard. “It is a large pot and mother will not notice; no one will see us anyway.” But Lieschen said: “If you do this, you are very naughty, Görgel. Can’t you see the sun shining on the cupboard? She will show it to God and he will see if we eat on the sly”. Görgel said: “So let’s go into the attic where mother keeps the nice pears. There is no window; the sun can’t come in and God cannot see us”. Lieschen tried to resist, but then the children went into the attic, where broken sunrays flooded around the pears through the gaps in the roof tiles. “O Görgel, here too God will see us; we can’t take any pears”. On the way down, Görgel had a new idea. “Hey, in the cellar mother has a little pot with cream. It is impossible that God can see us in the dark.” Görgel took his unwilling sister by the hand and pulled her after him into the cellar, where he carefully closed the door to keep the day out, so that God would not see when they licked from the cream. A little later some light entered the cellar and Lieschen saw the sun come through a small crack in the wall straight at the pot of cream. Lieschen ran frightened back upstairs. Annoyed, Görgel pushed some moss into the crack and started to eat from the cream. A mighty thunder clapped overhead and lightning hit the crack in the wall. The dark shape of a man appeared from a corner, sat himself opposite Görgel, staring with fiery eyes at the pot of cream. Görgel had such a fright, that he could not move a finger and had to sit where he was. In the meantime upstairs an angel joined Lieschen with toys, cookies and sweet milk, and played with Lieschen until the parents returned, happy to see all the nice things. When asked for Görgel, Lieschen realised with dismay, that during the good time with the little angel and all the gifts, she had forgotten her brother in the cellar and cried: “Oh dear God, Görgel is still in the cellar.” All went down, opened the door and there sat Görgel rooted to the spot with the pot of cream. He sobbed as he saw his mother, who took the cream from him and once upstairs, gave him a well-earned smack.

Throughout his life, Görgel has never eaten on the sly and when others tried to involve him in actions shy of the light of day, he always said: “I’m not doing it. The God Everywhere will see it; God protect me”, and became a brave and honest man.